This will be updated as more information and pictures become available

First pictures above are of a “role of honour” that hangs in the church- taken on mobile so light effected

A FOND FAREWELL to David Cleugh

On 25th September, 2017 the village said a fond farewell to its very popular vicar, Father David CLEUGH, who, together with his wife, Hannah, have moved to pastures new, namely Cambridge. Father David has become vicar of Fordham, Isleham, Chippenham, Kennet and Snailwell, whilst Hannah has become Chaplain to the Bishop of Ely. On the morning of Friday 20th October, 2017, several members of St. Ives’ Church went down to Cambridge to attend the investiture of Father David which took place later that night and to attend the investiture of Hannah, which took place on the morning of Saturday, 21st October.

Operation Spruce Up came and work done on Front Street, Durham Road, St Ives Road and Watling Street. Also… a litter pick was held managed by Sustrans North East along the C2C cycleway through the village

The Big Bash was a roaring success at the Cricket Club with over 2,500 people attending

Eden Colliery Tea and Chat Group had second event at St Ives Church more events planned and all ex Eden Colliery workers, familes and interested parties are welcome

St Ives Church as part of its 150 Year Anniversary held a Wedding Celebrations including couples having a re-blessing of vows

Leadgate Task Force also been helping out at Leadgate Priamry School digging some beds and pruning back some areas for pupils to use as part of the schools Gardening Club

Local residents and the Task Force also were recognised at the Durham Community Action Volunteers evebt at Beamish Musuem. Well done to Brenda Surtees, Janet Lavery, David Shields and all local residents who have taken part in Task Force activities in the last year

Leadgate Task Force, at the request of Fr. David Cleugh, agreed to take on the task of clearing and preparing the plot in St Ives Churchyard that had historically been where stillborn babies had been buried without markers.

Fr. David Cleugh and the Church Wardens at the overgrown site

After the initial visit to assess the task work began on Friday 7th April 2017 with the initial clearance of brambles, low branches, general overgrowth, and removal of large stones. Two volunteers; Janet Lavery and Lennie Curry hacked their way through the undergrowth for 4 hours (8 man hours) and in total managed to fill 14 large sacks of waste which were taken to the Council Dump in Stanley.

A Memorial headstone was uncovered from the undergrowth of 5 month old Alan Coombe who sadly died in a house fire at Pont Bungalows on 4th November 1965.

Memorial to Alan Coombe aged 5 months

The bulk of the work was done over the Easter weekend, 13th -17th April 2017 inclusive, when Janet worked 23 hours assisted by Lennie 8 hours and Chris McCabe 4 hours. This was mainly the digging over and weeding the patch; hard physical work but rewarding as the patch began to take shape.

The final push was completed over the period 19th – 21st April and done by Janet and Lennie saw this project complete and ready to hand back to the Church for the final phase of grassing the site and placing a dedication plaque.

In total the project took over 55 man hours and around 60 large sacks of debris were taken to the Council dump.

The Task Force Chairman Richard Judd with the main workers, Janet and Lennie

The completed site was handed back to Fr. David and the Church Wardens on 3rd May.

Overall a very satisfying project and we look forward to seeing the patch when it has been turfed and the plaque put in place.

Leadgate Taskforce is all about taking action and March was a month of taking action

Big Spring Clean 2017 held over 3rd/4th March 30+ people took part plus a class from Leadgate Primary School (Lower School)

Parents and others helped also to clear leaves from outside of the lower school. Then a local business kindly jet washed the pavement

61 bags were collected in all

More litter picks and “hot spot” activites are planned watch out for details

Also Operation Spruce Up have announced they are coming in July 2017

Meetings with other local grouips were held including attending a meeting of the Pont Valley Network some joint work is now being explored

Also links with St Ives Chuch started with a “tour” including seeing the hanging Eden Colliery Banner. Then a group from the church supported the Litter Pick. Thet are also going one of the sites as part of Leadgate Now and Then which is going to form part of the Explore Festival being put on by Land of Oak & Iron. More details to follow and also a project to help with some improvments in the gtaveyard are also being exlpored

As a follow up to the ongoing local concerms on Dog Fouling Geoffry Knight from Civic Pride Team at the Council and Paul Anderson from the Neighbourhood Warden Team. More Dog bins and relocation of some of the current ones are being explored. Also new inceased powers come into force from 1 June 2017.

Finally at the Taskforce meeting at the end of March it was agreed to make the Taskforce into a Formal Group , with consitition, commiite and own bank account. More details to follow but this will now allow us to seek funding for future work and projects

An overview of what the Leadgate Taskforce has been up to in February 2017

First of a number of planning meetings for Leadgate XMAS 2017 was held and thanks to Liam Carr for attending giving an insight/feedback on Medomsley’s XMAS Celebrations

Please keep an eye out for more updates as we go forward, also if anyone wants to help with the planning please do Get in Touch

On the Shop Local Campaign leaflets have now been handed out to shops in the village. The First Free “Listing Advert” has now been produced for Salon 19, on Watling Street

If you are (or know someone who is) a Leadgate based trader or work from home please do get in contact to get your FREE Business Directory listing and arrange a meeting regarding doing an “advert” similar to Salon 19.

Please email me on richardjudd@leadgatevillage.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you

Janet Lavery and Richard Judd have met and are going through the process to become Sustrans Volunteers on the C2C Cycleway in Leadgate. More Volunteers are needed and welcome. Please get in touch to discuss or visit the Sustrans website.

Working with Steph Walker an “advert” for the Leadgate Legacy Gym has been designed and is now on http://www.leadgatevillage.org.uk under the Facilities tab under the Leadgate Community Centre.

Big Spring Clean 2017 Litter Pick is happening Saturday 4th March 2017. all equipement and bags being provided by the County Council. A meeting took place with Geofrey Knight from the Civic Pride team to talk through. More support welcome and thanks to the Jolly Drovers for supporting in terms an offer of Free Tea/Coffee after the Litter Pick. Also thanks to Linda Pears for producing posters for the event

An information event with a talk from Land of Oak & Iron was held on Saturday 25th Feb. More opportunties to get involved in some of their projects in due course. Thanks to Pauline and Alan Parker for help with hire of the Scout Hut for the event

David Lavery and Les Reay also attended the Site meeting for the Leadgate Area Partnership managed project at Watling Woods following the securing of funding from Tesco’s. The project hopefully will start in the Spring. If you would like to get involved please do get in contact with Andy Plan the Secretary of the Partnership

March is going to be a busy Month too. Dog Fouling follow up meeting with Civic Pride and Neighbourhood Warden contacts has been arranged

Watch out for details coming soon for our first Social Event in April.

First meeting held and aims for the year established please see earlier blog details for full details

Following comments on Facebook on police issues and also dog fouling a Drop In Session was organsised with 13 people attending including local police contacts and also the Area Neighbourhood Warden Team were represented. It was agreed to host more on a quattley basis with an evening slot.

Please do report any police issues via 101 or email PC Louise Baxter her email is under the Police part of Facilities tab on the website

Also please do report dog fouling or fly tipping to the Council as the more reports that are made, the more priority will be given. Do this via the online reporting function on the Council website to allow the reports to be dealt with in a timely way

There was the Jan meeting of the Leadgate Area Partnership including a presentation by Consett YMCA

Leadgate Taskforce have also gained permission by Leadgate Cricket Club for the postioning of a XMAS Tree for Leadgate XMAS 2017. There will be a social event including singing of carols on Sat 25h Nov 2017 more details to follow in due course

Also in regards to Litter-2 litter picks have been arrangeed please see posts on Leadgate Times for more details

One will be in partnership and run by Sustrans NE on the C2C Cycleway through Leadgate this will be on Tuesday 4th April. All welcome

The 2nd is on Saturday 4th March as part of the national Keep Britaina Tidy Big Spring Clean 2017. The council are providing equipment and bags, this will be a village wide litter pick. All are welcome to help in whatever they can.

Also thank you to local reporter Gavin Harvey who met with some of the Taskforce and wrote an article which appeared in the Northern Echo and Consett & Stanley Advertisor

So a good and busy start to 2017. Lets work together to make a difference to this beautiful village

Here is an overview (not a full record) of the Jan 2017 Leadgate Area Partnership meeting – minutes of the meeting will be shared in due course

There was a presenation by Vicky Rowell from Consett YMCA to introduce what they get involved in to support local area youngsters

They were involved in a sucessful funding application in 2010 and keen to explore working with Leadgate based youngsters again including working with the Partnership to look at making funding applications to support activities. They will be looking to visit and do an introduction at Leadgate Youth Club in due course.

Then there were the Counciler Reports from Alan Shields and Watt Sterling. New Road signage and speeding was mentioned and also details of “traffic audit” which is being carried out. Further information will be in the minutes

Then an update on Watling Woods project (Tesco Bags for Help £10k) with site meeting proposed for Feb 1st 2017. More updates will follow in due course

Finance was discussed and to enable fund raising the “running costs” of the Partnership will be confirmed so that a fund raising event can be arranged to hopefully cover these

Leadgate Taskforce reported they had held first meeting and set out their Aims for 2017. Minutes for the Taskforce meeting can be viewed here

There was also a discussion regarding looking at getting a Defibulator for the village via the British Heart Foundation. More needs to looked into including how many might be needed and also the possible use of old BT boxes for secure storage- thanks to the Councilers for making us aware of this. More details to follow

Noted that a Drop Session to meet local police and also Neighbourhood Warden has been arranged for Weds 25th Jan 3.30pm at Leadgate Community Centre to address concerns inclduing dog fouling, speeding and anti social behaviour

Martin Boyle also mentioned a related issue on dog fouling and damage to fences at Park Villas

Minutes of the meeting were taken by Andy Plant and subject to his commitments minutes will be shared when available

Leadgate Taskforce is A group of village folk looking to better the village environment through a series of self-help initiatives to tackle clean up and to rejuvenate any areas of the village that require attention

Here is an overview of our Aims for 2017

Neighbourhood Co-Ordinators

To set up “Neighbourhood Co-Ordinators” to be a contact for a certain area/roads throughout the village

Volunteers needed and welcome

2. Leadgate XMAS 2017

To plan to site and purchase a XMAS Tree for the village including lights/decorations

To plan and hold a number of events including Tree light switch on, carol sing-along and hopefully a Santa parade similar the one held in Medomsley

Again any volunteers to help plan and take part in the events wanted and welcomed

3. Big Spring Clean 2017

To take part and involve as many residents as possible in the Big Spring Clean 2017 March/April dates to be confirmed

First Event a litter pick along the C2C cylce route in partnership with Sustrans North East

Second Event a village wide litter pick day with a planned “thank you” event

All help and support of these events is wanted and welcomed

4. Support Local Business

To support local business and traders by setting up a business directory. Then promote via various campaigns for people to Keep It/Shop local

5. Skills Exchange

To set up a way for people to “swap skills” more details to follow

For more information on the Taskforce

For more information on the Taskforce please have a look at the website and get involved on the Leadgate Taskforce Facebook Group. Please do get in contact and get involved